node_delete_multiple() has to use batch API

Posted by sun on January 8, 2009 at 6:33am

Issue Summary

While working on #8: Let users cancel their accounts, I discovered that we have node_mass_update() for updating many nodes in a batch, but no node_mass_delete() for deleting many nodes in a batch.

Aside from the fact that an administrator can delete many nodes using the node mass-operations on admin/content/node, the new account cancellation methods also allow administrators to delete all contents of a user. When an administrator is forced to delete a long-time user with all of his contents, then this could easily result in thousands of nodes having to be deleted.

We have two options to solve this issue:

Introduce a node_mass_delete() function, using almost the same pattern as node_mass_update() - most probably leading to almost identical/duplicated code.
Make node_mass_update() more flexible, f.e. passing array('nid' => NULL) can only mean that nodes shall be deleted.

Comments

#1

Posted by swentel on January 10, 2009 at 8:01pm

I somehow see a third option: rename node_mass_update and _node_mass_update_helper to a more general name, because with few small code changes it should be possible to either create, update or delete a node with only one function. Saves kittens imo :)

#2

Posted by Jody Lynn on January 29, 2009 at 7:39pm

Batch delete would also be useful to this issue: #362795: Delete Entire Book

#3

Posted by bradfordcp on April 17, 2009 at 6:25am

This is a first attempt at creating a new mass_operation function for nodes. To summarize the patch:

Moved node_mass_update() from node.admin.inc into node.module (since this is / may be used outside of the administration page)
Changed method signature to: node_mass_operation($nodes, $op, $updates = array() This provided the flexibility needed to allow mass delete operations
Renamed and updated the appropriate helper methods that go along with performing the operations and utilizing batch API
Updated the appropriate form submission handlers to utilize the new method (these were within node and user module)